


Burning Up

by Soulvaren5555



Series: Clone Wars Febuwhump 2021 [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Ahsoka Tano Whump, Ahsoka Tano-centric, Anakin Skywalker Hates Sand, Dehydration, Desert, Exhaustion, Fainting, FebuWhump2021, Fever, Gen, Hurt Ahsoka Tano, No Beta We Die Like Clones, Protective Anakin Skywalker, Stranded, Sunburn, Whump, and i don't blame him, and it's hurting his Padawan child, heat exhaustion, it's coarse rough irritating and it gets everywhere, sand sucks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 07:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29328252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soulvaren5555/pseuds/Soulvaren5555
Summary: Febuwhump 2021 - Day 8: "Hey, hey, this is no time to sleep" | Day 22: BurnedWhen Ahsoka gets stranded on a desert planet with Anakin, the heat from their environment combined with an increasing fever she'd been hiding since morning starts to take a serious toll on her.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Series: Clone Wars Febuwhump 2021 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2139531
Comments: 1
Kudos: 62





	Burning Up

**Author's Note:**

> Haha I'm late yet again my life's a joke-
> 
> I swear I didn't mean to be behind on my Febuwhump stuff, I've been surprisingly busy for the past couple days and I swear I'll catch up! Hopefully tomorrow's less busy and my brain is more active!

It was impossible for Ahsoka to tell how long she and Anakin had been walking for. All she knew was that it had to have been at least been over an hour since their speeder decided to spontaneously combust on the way back to their ship, leaving them stranded in the middle of the seemingly endless desert. They thought they knew the way back regardless of whether they had a vehicle or not; this was supposed to be a simple trip to and back from an isolated town, after all.

At this point, they knew they were lost. Neither of them chose to say anything about it, for fear that all hope would be drained away with that admission.

She hugged herself and squinted as wind whipped sand at her. They weren’t stuck in a sandstorm - thank the Force - but the wind was harsh whenever it kicked up. Otherwise, the air was dry and unbearably hot. There was no shelter for miles, nothing they could see. They had no food or water; all of that was back on the ship, where they likely would have been if it weren’t for the blasted speeder.

She followed closely behind Anakin, who wasn’t doing much better than her. He was holding himself up better, only showing little signs of exhaustion, but that didn’t automatically mean he was okay. It was a fact both of them knew all too well, and the same went for her as well. She was almost caught in the act the morning before they left for this desert planet, asked by her Master if she was actually okay more than once.

Each time, she denied having anything wrong with her and quickly changed the subject before he could continue questioning her. In truth, she’d woken up with a slight fever, something she assumed she could handle until they returned. Afterwards, she could tell Anakin the truth and resign herself to bedrest. Sure, he would be upset with her for lying, but at least she wouldn’t keep the lie up for the entire day.

As she trudged through the sand, the blistering heat from the sun above beating down on her, she couldn’t help but regret it. Granted, she thought she had a good reason to join Anakin instead of resting. He hated sand, and thus, he wasn’t the biggest fan of desert planets. Normally she’d tease him about the sand, even joking about filling his boots with it. He would warn her against it, but their sand-centric conversations usually ended without malice.

Sand jokes aside, she really didn’t want him to be alone in a place he hated, so she pretended she was fine and got to come along.

Her head pounded furiously, and it took all of her willpower not to reach up with one hand and clutch it. What was once a minor headache now felt as though several spikes were being shoved into her skull. Her legs shook with each step, a combination of nausea and utter exhaustion threatening to overtake her. Her exposed skin was caked in sweat, scorched by the heat enveloping her.

Why hadn’t she brought a cloak? She could’ve asked Obi-Wan if she could borrow one of his, since he had more than one, and he would have let her. At least with a cloak on, the sun’s rays wouldn’t be burning her alive.

“This is worse than Tatooine,” she grumbled under her breath. Even when using as quiet of a voice as possible, razors slid down her throat.

Anakin glanced at her over his shoulder, having heard her complaint. “No desert planet is worse than the other, Snips,” he asserted, his voice somewhat rough. “They’re all horrible.”

“You said it...”

Ahsoka thought about asking if he could see anything in the distance, but she kept her mouth shut. She had to choose her words carefully if she didn’t want to irritate her parched throat further. Besides, she wouldn’t be able to make out anything clearly. Not with her blurry vision and oncoming dizziness.

Eventually, her steps became more uneven. She swayed a little as she forced herself to continue walking, her muscles cramping unbearably. She wanted nothing more than to get back to the ship they arrived in, or any form of shelter, but there was nothing as far as the eye could see. There were only endless hills of hot, burning sand.

At one point, when they were walking up one of those hills, she stumbled and caught herself with both hands before she hit the ground. The grainy substance seared her fingers and palms, causing her to grit her teeth as she pushed herself back up. She was starting to see why Anakin hated it so much. From that moment on, she tried to be more careful with her movements, having gotten a painful taste of what would happen if she allowed herself to fall.

And yet, she was getting increasingly weak and feverish. Thoughts scattering, head throbbing, pace getting slower and slower with each passing minute... it wasn’t long before she momentarily forgot how she burned her hands. Her body and mind begged to be able to rest. She considered just lying down on the sand and taking a small break. She wanted to sleep so _badly_ , because _everything hurt_ , and she wouldn’t be able to handle it for much longer.

“Master...?” Ahsoka croaked, staring up at him with half-lidded eyes. He stopped and turned slightly after hearing her speak his formal title. She was too delirious to see the concern written all over his face.

“Master, ‘m tired.” She slurred her words, blinking and shaking her head a little. It was a small action, but it made her headache worse and her lekku pulse painfully. She winced deeply, her fangs digging into her lower lip.

Anakin turned around fully to face his Padawan, practically lunging towards her and catching her as her knees gave out. “Hey, hey, this is no time to sleep,” he rasped out, taking her arm and wrapping it around his waist to support her. “We have to keep going... okay? We can’t stop now.”

Ahsoka whimpered, her arm burning in Anakin’s grasp. Tears rolled down her heated cheeks. “Can’t... need to sleep. Hurts...”

They started moving again, albeit slower than their previous pace. She was barely making an effort to keep up, her heels dragging in the sand.

“I know it hurts,” Anakin replied, frowning worriedly. “I'm sorry. Just hang in there, Ahsoka...”

She could barely feel herself nod ever so slightly. Her entire body ached and her skin blistered under the blazing sun. Once again, she was too out of it to notice the new glimmer of hope lighting his eyes as they abruptly stopped after a while.

“Hey... look! I think I see the ship!” he shouted. His voice was raw and scratchy. Normally, Ahsoka would have been overly concerned about him, much as he was for her. She would have asked him if he was okay, if she could do something to help. In her current state, that was the farthest thing from her mind.

When she didn’t respond at first, she felt her Master nudging her in an attempt to snap her out of her daze. “Did you hear me, Snips?”

She blinked heavily, her focus wavering. “Huh...?” she murmured, letting out a small pained groan. “Sorry... don’t feel good...”

“I think- see- ship- getting close- _Ahsoka!”_

She only heard some of Anakin’s words, the rest fading out as her consciousness did. Buckling under all the agonizing pain and stress she was put under, she slumped forward, eyes rolling back into her head as the world went black.


End file.
